Coach Briles Drops Defamation lawsuit

Coach Briles filed suit against Baylor University last December for defamation. See my post about that lawsuit here. In that lawsuit, he claimed Baylor said he knew about rapes and sexual assaults and did nothing about them. He claims din his lawsuit that was false, that he did not know about the sexual assaults. Well, now, he has dropped his lawsuit. He dropped his lawsuit just as a lawsuit filed by a former Athletic department assistant was getting started. Colin Shillinglaw filed his own suit against Baylor. Mr. Shillinglaw sued Baylor for claiming he had mis-handled the incidents involving the sexual assaults and rapes. In response to Mr. Shillinglaw’s lawsuit, Baylor provided evidence of Coach Briles’ knowledge of the incidents. Up to now, the administration has kept quiet about specific evidence, probably to protect the confidential nature of the claims.

For example, in response to a text about a football player exposing himself to a masseuse and asking for special favors, Coach Briles responded. “What kind of discipline . . . She a stripper?” The player, Tevin Elliot remained on the football squad and the incident was not reported to administration officials. Later, that same player would be accused of rape by two women in separate incidents. In 2013, a female athlete accused several players of gang raping her. She eventually told her female coach. When the female coach approached Coach Briles about it, he said, “These are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?” The response filed by the school argues that the football program was a “black hole” into which disappeared these allegations of brandishing a gun, drug use, domestic violence, indecent exposure, academic fraud, and physical assault. See Chicago Tribunereport.

It would be surprising if Coach Briles did not know about the actions of his players. Most coaches, perhaps all coaches are approached about what their players allegedly have done. And, really, the coaches know their players very well. So, Coach Briles’ suggestion that he knew his players were “bad dudes” reflects very poorly on him and the sort of players he recruited. The best defense to a defamation lawsuit is the simple truth. One can guess that Coach Briles filed his lawsuit as a bluff, hoping the administration would not reveal its information. He may have been trying to take advantage of the school’s difficult position. It must and is required to protect the confidential nature of these allegations. But, if so, he was wrong to assume the administration would not provide enough information to protect itself.